


Creature

by CrystallicSky



Category: Xiaolin Showdown (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, POV First Person, POV Second Person, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-03-02
Updated: 2008-03-02
Packaged: 2017-11-12 18:14:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/494208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrystallicSky/pseuds/CrystallicSky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I don't understand a lot of things lately. Sometimes I feel like I should know, should be able to figure out these things, but I just can't seem to comprehend them. The knowledge eludes me."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Creature

I don't understand.

I don't understand a lot of things lately. Sometimes I feel like I _should_ know, _should_ be able to figure out these things, but I just can't seem to comprehend them.

The knowledge eludes me.

Like now, for example, I'm fairly uncertain about what I'm doing here.

I'm lying next to a male, and he's around a lot, but I'm not sure why. I'm just lying here for no apparent reason. The male is asleep, completely defenseless, and I can't help but be drawn in by his scent, so I move closer, sniffing gently at his throat and breathing in that delicious scent.

I haven't eaten in a _long_ while...

My tongue glides over the smooth flesh of his neck, and I am gratified to realize that he tastes as good as he smells. I keep lapping at the skin there, satisfying my pallate.

But it's not enough. I'm _so_ very hungry...

Instinctively, my jaw opens, and my breaths come in slight pants as I imagine how _good_ this vital male will taste...

Suddenly, my world turns, and pain erupts in my head, and I realize that the male has awoken and shoved me away, his hand forcing my skull viciously to the mattress. My throat gives an agonized hiss as I struggle against his grip, wriggling and whining and making pleading noises, but he doesn't relent, if anything holding me down _more_ firmly. In a last-ditch effort, I make eye-contact, hoping to persuade him.

His stern, furious expression softens at the look, and he releases the pressure on me before tugging at my arms, pulling me to his chest.

I make a soft sound of confusion as one of his hands rubs at my back while the other busies itself in my hair, smoothing out the wild tangles in the white strands, and try to understand the purpose of what he's doing.

I feel uncomfortable here, but...something seems familiar about it.

Before I can ponder any further, drudging through memories that I don't seem to have but can _almost_ remember, the male speaks in a soft, deep tone, "You're nothing more than a beast now, aren't you?" I can't understand the meaning of the words he says, but the sound is nice, comforting to me, and I respond with a pleased noise, looking up at him again.

His golden eyes are very pretty to look at, but they seem sad now as they look into mine.

It might be that he is my alpha male, because I...remember? Not really, but it feels like maybe...he often mated with me, and perhaps he is sad that I cannot really remember this.

For some reason, it hurts to see that sadness in his eyes, and I attempt to make him feel better by licking affectionately at his cheek.

He gasps quietly, in surprise, I assume, before looking straight into my eyes again, their fully-red color, interrupted only by a black, vertical slit through the middle, meeting that brilliant gold.

The contact is broken as he leans forward, pressing his mouth against mine.

This, too, confuses me, as this doesn't seem to serve a purpose, but with one hand still on my back and the other now holding my jaw in place, I don't really have a choice but to participate in it.

I feel his tongue prodding my lips open, and it coaxes my _own_ tongue into his mouth. I'm still not sure why he's doing this, but I do my best to do what he wants me to.

He tastes good, every part of him, and his mouth is no exception. I now participate in what he's doing with more fervor, licking at his tongue and savoring the taste.

I don't understand why I don't just bite it off and swallow it, because it really _has_ been a few days since I've eaten, but something in the very back of my mind, the same part that keeps me in a constant state of feeling like I've forgotten something important, tells me not to, tells me just to taste the male and nothing more. The action _does_ seem familiar to me, now that I think of it, and my body responds accordingly, my arms curling around the male's neck and my tongue playing with his.

This is apparently what the male had wanted, because he granted me an appreciative moan and pulled away, that foggy, clouded part of me protesting as he did so.

He looked at me again for a long while. "You kissed me like you used to...like you..." I tilted my head in confusion, still not understanding his language, but wondering why he stopped talking. At this he smiled a little, pressing me tightly against him, even as I writhed in his grip, startled and unable to grasp the situation. "Maybe there's hope after all...maybe it's not impossible to bring you back." The words remained the same, a jumbled mess of incomprehensible sound to me, but the tone had changed: there was happiness in it, now, and I determined that something I had done was the cause of it. I preened internally, knowing I had made my alpha male happy.

A slight dizziness overtook me, though, and I leaned heavily into the male already holding my form tightly against his, pleadingly moaning the only word I knew in his language, _"Hungry..."_

His hand stroked through my hair again, gently and carefully, as he answered, "Yes...of course. I'll bring you something to eat, my love...I'll take care of you, Jack..."

Even though I didn't know the exact meaning of what he said, I knew that it meant he would provide for me, bring me another of his species to sate my hunger, and even though I didn't understand much of anything anymore, I figured that that was okay.

My mate understood, and that was enough.


	2. The Creature's Keeper

Sometimes, I still couldn't believe it.

Some days, it seemed impossible to even _fathom_ that my Jack was no longer human.

There were moments when he would kiss me, touch me, or look at me _just_ like he used to, and it would seem as if nothing had ever happened, as if I had only dreamed his affliction, and I would think myself foolish for ever doubting him.

And then I was brought back to reality by those devilish-looking eyes, those sinfully sharp teeth, and of course, who could forget his appetite?

Yes, my Jack was always hungry these days, _always_ ravenous for human flesh, ever since...

When I had first learned of the disease spreading amongst the populous of the world, the victims supposedly made into a disturbing cross between a vampire, a werewolf, and a zombie, mindless killers with a taste for flesh and blood, I had scoffed at the very idea, passing it off in my mind as someone's idea of a joke; a science-fiction hoax that had gone a bit too far.

But Jack had believed it, and pleaded with me to at least go check on his parents, to make sure they were alright.

I should have never let him go.

His father had been bitten, the manner in which the disease was spread, and he had infected his wife in turn. When Jack had arrived, he had met the same fate.

He never stood a chance.

I was able to retrieve him just before his home was invaded by the Purgers, the groups of humans who were unaffected and had deemed themselves the saviors of their race by destroying the afflicted, but...it was too late.

He had been changed.

I knew he'd just as soon devour me as look at me, and I knew I should have destroyed him right then and there.

But I couldn't: he was my mate. It went against every fiber of my being to do such a thing, and then he looked up at me with those inhuman eyes, giving me such a pathetic, pleading stare as if he _knew_ what I was thinking of doing, and I literally _couldn't_ do it.

That's not to say I wasn't cautious around him. I knew from the gruesome scenes shown on just about every news channel what he was capable of, and took according precautions.

It wasn't long before he took to his life with me, though: he instinctively knew that it wasn't in his best interests to try and hurt me in any way, and so for the most part, he didn't even attempt it.

He followed me around mostly, stood and watched as I did whatever it was I was doing with something akin to curiosity, but he never spoke, never made so much as a sound unless he was hungry.

But then something happened.

One of the Jackbots he had kept around my palace had broken down, and unable to find any personal use for a worthless pile of scrap-metal, I ordered one of my warriors to get rid of it, but then Jack had walked from my side, stopping the cat before she could remove it.

His hands easily went to work on the machine, reconnecting wires and fiddling with the circuitry, and within minutes, the automaton was up and operational.

I was speechless.

Jack remembered his robots? The same robots whose inner-workings were so complicated that anyone _but_ the creator would have no idea how to repair them?

If he remembered them...did he remember me? Was his mind still intact, but overwhelmed by the disease? Maybe...maybe he was just sick... He'd get better eventually, then.

After that, I had started letting him sleep in my bed again, and until recently, he'd always been well-behaved, kept himself snuggled up against me for warmth and slept soundly through the night.

But then he'd tried to bite me.

I suppose that it was partly my own fault, as I had been neglecting to retrieve his meals as of late. It wasn't because the human population was running thin after the disease had struck. No, the human race had proved strong enough to withstand it, and somehow managed to eradicate all of the afflicted, all but my Jack, of course, in a timely and orderly manner, leaving casualties as low as to be in the millions. I suppose I had just been putting it off, hoping that since he was getting better, he wouldn't need it anymore.

This was an unfounded hope.

At the very least, though, the incident wasn't without it's positives: I had kissed him, and he responded _exactly_ as he had when he was still human.

I realized that maybe there actually _was_ hope for him, maybe he _could_ come back to me, just as he was then.

And maybe I wouldn't go completely insane if he could return to himself.

So, I'll keep taking care of him, keep bringing him the pathetic human scum of the world to sustain his life, and keep loving him despite everything he has become...

All in the hopes that he could come back to me one day, as Jack Spicer, my mate and lover, instead of the all but mindless creature he is now.

And he will.


	3. Snapshots to Recovery

_"...Chase?"_

The warlord tensed slightly, turning to see Jack standing behind him with a blank expression, head tilted slightly as if unsure of himself in using the name.

Blinking in surprise, even as a thrill of hope swept through his heart, he pulled the teenager close to him, assuring the afflicted youth that he was right.

 

* * *

 

 Jack had been quiet all week, and hadn't made eye-contact with Chase for just as long, far too ensnared within the confines of his own mind. On the following Tuesday, however, sitting in his caretaker's lap as the man looked over some ancient tome or other, the youth spoke, _"White."_

Chase looked up from his book, settling his gaze on his beloved. "What?"

The teenager looked almost proud as he answered in choppy english, _"White. Your favorite color."_ And it was.

 

* * *

 

Chase was getting worried about his Jack again. His speech had _greatly_ improved and was almost back to normal (though he still seemed unable to wrap his mind around the concept of contractions or slang), and he had been talking more often, but for some reason, as of late, he only spoke when spoken to and gave replies as monosyllabic as possible.

This went on for several days before the warlord confronted him about it. The answer he had gotten surprised him.

_"We used to have sex nearly five times a week, and now we are lucky if it is two. Are you mad at me?"_

* * *

 

_"Why do I have to eat people?"_

This was the first time Jack questioned his new diet.

"You'll understand soon, Jack, I promise."

And this was the first time Chase didn't have the heart to tell him the truth.

 

* * *

 

"Chase?"

The warlord awoke to his beloved gently nudging his shoulder, and he turned to face him, meeting the demonic eyes he had gotten used to over the three years he had been seeing them."What is it, Jack?"

Something seemed off about the youth that morning. His speech sounded smoother than usual, not as forced, and his facial expression actually held emotion instead of the incomprehensible blankness it had been.

The teen hesitated, looking fairly apprehensive about whatever he was going to say. "...What am I doing here?"

Chase quirked an eyebrow at the question. "What do you mean, 'what are you doing here'?"

Uncertainty was flamingly obvious in his red eyes now, and he hesitantly explained, "You'll think I'm insane..." Jack apparently didn't expect a response to this, as he continued on to utter the sentence that would flip Chase's world right side up again.

"The last thing I remember is going to check on mom and dad, and now I'm here in bed with you. What happened?"


End file.
